Book Reviews

The epic story of how pro football captured a nation.

I know football is huge in America. The NFL is king both on tv, in person, and in gambling. But I never understood why it over took baseball as our nations game. Baseball was king for years and then football took over. Why?

Well, there are a bunch of “why’s”. One thing that was fascinating was the fact that college football was (and still is) fanatical and that that college football did not want a professional football league! What!? They did not want to take anything away from their market.

It’s one reason we don’t have NFL games on Friday nights and Saturday’s.

The one snippet (there are many) that really stands out for me is that early on the NFL owners and commissioner realized that if they were to be successful as a LEAGUE, then they needed to share profits to all teams in the league. By sharing tv profits and ticket sales at the games with all teams in the league, they would make the LEAGUE stronger. That is the ONLY reason there is a successful NFL team in Greenbay Wisconsin.

How many professional sports teams are in cities with only slightly over 100,000 people (2018)? One. The Green Bay Packers.

Why? Because the league shares profits.

The other way the NFL leveled the playing field was that the team at the bottom of the league had first pick in the draft (which the NFL created too) allowing teams to improve their teams and ‘level the playing field’ and create a competitive league where any team has a chance to win over time. The other sports have caught on to this one too, which we take for granted.

If you are a sports fan, and especially if you are a football fan, this is a great book to give you that historical perspective.

A Guided Workbook for Creating a Happy and Purposeful Future.

Ida Abbott is a lawyer with a passion to help people through talent management, mentoring, and leadership development for women.

If you are a person thinking, “what the heck am I going to do when I leave my full-time job?” you should read this book.

It is one of the most thoughtful books I’ve read on this subject (I’ve read quite a few) and she has laid it out in a way that allows you to think about the wide variety of issues you must face from exploring your feelings and attitudes, values, relationships, financial considerations, legal & medical, envisioning your future, and more.

She offers these varied topics that should be considered as you rebalance your life, in a ‘design thinking’ model that encourages you to think about an issue, create options to explore, get out a try them (test them), so that you make the best decision possible.

It is a true workbook in that she gives you information, asks a number of prompts, gives you space to write your thoughts down, and come up with action plans.

This is the most comprehensive, practical guide I’ve seen regarding this “3rd age” – retirement phase – or what I like to call ‘rebalancing’ time of our lives.

Highly recommended book.

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching. He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move

I had posted on LinkedIn about my Transitions online seminar and that Dr. Nancy Schlossberg had been helpful in providing an article for week 1 and that week 2 was all about William Bridges’ theory on transitions, and Tom Bachhuber posted some of his thoughts on LinkedIn. Next thing you know, we are sending each other additional messages and he offers to send me his book on Transpirations.

Transpirations is a combination of “transitions” and “spirits”as he says, “transitions inspired by the spirit.” Tom weaves in a spiritual side to career transitions that is very well done. It does not feel preachy at all. Only supportive of the career transition, non-judgmental and personal.

I love how each chapter was set up with a personal journal excerpt from his huge transition event of going through cancer or his failing older parents, followed by very good practical advice on career transitions, then thought-provoking questions to help you explore the topic further with space to write your thoughts down.

The book is broken into three major sections based upon William Bridges’s theory that you must begin with the end (if you were laid off, you must “end” that experience), then move to the neutral zone where it can be very confusing, and then you can actually “begin” something new.

Each section starts with what you will be experiencing in emotions, key tasks, spiritual questions, and then Ignation reflections.

I also love how he brought in other thought-leaders on transitions from Richard Bolles to Mary Oliver and some of her poetry, all for the purpose of supporting stages of the transition process and to get you thinking.

If you are looking for great career advice to help you through any type of career transition and would like to have some spiritual guidance as well to get through difficult times, this book is highly recommended.

I found great comfort in reading this book every morning to start my day.

I received this book at the MACCA conference in December from the keynote speaker, Ed Murphy.

It is a collection of stories from a variety of people who work in a creative industry and how they got into their jobs. It is quite a collection of different people from artists and dancers to recording industry and workforce development.

It was interesting to read how creativity manifested itself in their lives and how it looked so different to each of them. Some were encouraged early on in their lives, others not. But their often windy roads to their career paths was fascinating.

If you have a client who is thinking about getting into the creative industry and seems hesitant. I would recommend they read this book.